Tag Archives: Armor

There’s something about the profile of a Bradley that just calls to treadheads. Yeah it’s too tall. A bit unwieldy in the corners. An absolute pain to maintain. But it’s distinct. It’s tough. And in all honesty wasn’t even supposed to exist. You can’t help but love the thud of the gun when you fire. The wail of the engine when you gun it, and all those cuts and bruises from pulling the 25mm chaingun make you appreciate it all the more.

I’m using this as the principle art for the unit shirt for the fine infantry of Able Company 1-63AR. And it’s making me want to do more of these ‘armor in profile’ drawings. Look for some Abrams, Paladins, and 113’s to show up soon! And if you’ve got some great reference shots from the field, send them my way!

This saying may have it’s roots grounded in religious texts, but it’s also a feeling that every soldier, marine, sailor and airmen that’s found themselves in combat know well. That willingness to do anything and everything for the man or woman at your side in their time of need. It’s not about bravery or heroism. It’s not about politics or country or even defeating the enemy. It’s about family. You take care of your own, and you’ll do anything for them.

Diving a little deeper into the WoW art this past week with another commissioned portrait piece for a friend. This time a Blood Elf Deathknight! Learned a little about metal coloring work with this piece, and fought myself with the color tones the whole way but I actually like the final quite a lot. It’s fun to challenge myself with textures and materials I’m not used to rendering/coloring. And with every portrait I get a little more comfortable with where this style is heading, making my ambition grow more and more to create full scenes. Stay tuned.

I love working on fan art. I don’t do it often but I have a blast when I do. There’s just something fun about creating imagery based on characters, places and things you spend so much time with. Be it video games, movies, tv shows or comics. It’s also great practice. So much so that this piece helped me solidify the direction I’ve been wanting to go with my digital color work.

I have tried in the past to do a full digital style like this, but I’ve never been happy with the lines that come from it. This piece used ink line work, from the Pentel Brush Pen, that I just did on a whim in my sketchbook while I sat around waiting for an appointment. This was the lead up to the Triumphy piece I shared earlier, and set how I wanted to work on them. The colors and technique is more refined in the other piece as well, but without spending the time here, I wouldn’t have even had that commission pop up!

The M2/M3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle is and always will be one of my favorite vehicles in the Army. The combination of firepower and armor, even its very shape called to me as a Private. I was lucky enough to be one of the first fire support guys to ever train on them and then helped to field them later when they were finally brought to the line in the First Cav.

In fact, I learned to drive and fire one of these behemoths before I even had a drivers license. Funny thing being a fresh faced 19 year old, power sliding around in an armored vehicle before I could even legally drive a car. And firing the 25mm on the range was one of the highlights of my time with the Cav, though tearing the gun down for time left plenty more marks on me as well.

A is for Abrams – 14″x11″ Graphite on Bristol, Digital and Handdrawn text.

This came from a quick idea on an alphabet book I had that I just had to explore more. The idea was to present people with a quirky new way of exploring military hardware and weapons through one of the simplest formats possible.

The book would be directed toward teens and adults, as well as military families. A short description and any useful stats would be on each page and help people learn a little more about the vehicles and weapon systems employed by the military today. Continue reading →